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Artillery Officer Merged Thread

:) Like some other people have said, you should ask your friends that already attended training at the Arty School. After CAP, Phase 3 or Dp something or another is a combination of field, air defence, and locating modules.  The bulk of the work focuses on the field side of the house. I hope this helps out!! P. S. Don't believe everything you hear because all three have different things to offer.  Most RMC cadets end up on the field side. 
 
Thanks a lot, guys. If rumors are true (which they hardly ever are) I'll be off to BOTP and CAP this summer and on my way to being arty qualified. I have been talking with both RMC cadets and reg officers who have done time in artillery and, after thinking about changing trades, I thought again and am going ARTY.
 
Meridian said:
That and noone ever signs up for Arty.

Whah? Is this true? I would kill to serve in the artillery!!(In process of applying )
 
Well not no one... But if you look at Kincanucks postings, you can see that Arty generally has the most room of the Cbt arms.
 
Perhaps that is because Artillery is the only truly technical trade in the combat arms and in order to be a proper gunner, you must be constantly upgrading your arty skills.That leaves older gunners not willing to quit the artillery at the drop of a dime because they have invested so much training time and therefore the promotions in the artillery are alot slower.

I think you will find that typically the other combat arms have a quicker promotion rate but a lower retention rate based on the idea that obviously someone must be getting out somewhere in order to promote people up.
 
I hope you're joining with the full intention of giving it your best.  The worst you can do for yourself and for the Corps is to become a gunner whose heart string dips in sh.....  Not only are you wasting the instructors at the school's time and effort but you're also taking the spot of someone who might have all the attributes of a "happy Arty officer"  As far as Occupational Transfers"  this highly unlikely.  As of last month, we are 50 Captains short in the arty.  That means that all new officers coming in, who would want to get out of the trade would have to compete to get into a new trade and compete to get out of their current trade,  Based on the shortage, this may not be an option at this time.  In any case, it seems that you have made you choice.  Good luck and see you at the school soon hopefully. ;D
 
To add my piece of the puzzle, I am an arty officer, 14 years in. Every trade as its pros and cons. Looks like the arty is slow to promote, both for Officers and NCOs, compare to Inf and Arty. We did had a few years in a row with 0 promotions in quite a number of rank levels. Because of this fact, a good number of excellent captains transfered trade (Int, Pilot, Eng, PA, all friends of mine) some of them are majors now, and they would probably still be captain have they decided to stay. The fact that we are 40 captains short is probably directly linked to it.

As far as the job is concerned, as an arty officer, most of the time, you do the same thing as any other cbt arms officer ... paperwork, staff work, etc. Only on exercise or on operation do you do the job for which you are trained for. The best one I had as arty was as a Observer (FOO). You are then totally away from your arty unit and under op control of an inf unit, armour unit, or combat team. You are then as forward as they are. The FOO must be able (as the engineer officer) to advise his supported arm commander (usually of the rank of major for a FOO) on all indirect fire usage, including the use of tanks in the fire base role. The arty officer must acquire early in his career deep knowledge of tactics of all arms in order to understand two levels up the tactical situation (this means that you have to be able, if working at a cbt team level, to have the tactical vision of the battle group, and to understand the objective of the divisional artillery).

By the way, the myth that the arty is far behind is false. For guns with an 18km range, two thirds of the range must be pass the front line, leaving the guns 6km from the fight, with recce officers being very close of enemy areas if on the advance.

As a FOO, you attend to Battle Group commander's Order Group with the major you are supporting. That is were you meet with your own arty Major (bty commander), which then gives you supplementary instructions on arty matters and tactics.

If you are also trained as a FAC (Fast Air Controller) you could be given the task of directing a F-18 onto a ground target, since this is also an indirect fire capability.

You and your team act just like infantry while performing any other non arty related tasks. You must then be able to lead a platoon if needed. You also are capable of setting up local defense and direct fire assets for an infantry company, because of your training and knowledge of tactics.

The soldiers you comand are very technically capable. You or your men are often asked to help with communication issues while with infantry, since an gunner is normally very efficient technically in this field, when sigs are not around.

On most UN and NATO missions, you would deploy in an infantry role, except when deploying guns or mortars.

In summary, an arty officer must be a decent infantry officer on top of being an arty officer. But don't count of doing arty stuff all your career. I would say that 80 % of the work you would do in a 20 yrs career would be spent doing mostly staff work, and for the 20 % on arty duties, I am being very generous.

There are experienced arty officers in Kingston and at RMC, talk to them to make up your mind. Good Luck ! UBIQUE
 
hey there.

Im in the same position as you are.  I finished IAP and BOTP and am now doing french training in st jean.  Im having the same thoughts as you are about being unsure what to expect come CAP and phase 3 and 4.  Im also a 115 pound girl so im a little worried if thats gonna make it harder on me to.  It was nice to read your posting and see that theres others who are unsure as well. Thanks  :)  I'll keep checking here to see if anyone tells you anything else about arty officer trainig.
 
Hello all,  I am currently enrolling in the DEO Artillery and have been viewing many posts on this site regarding taining.  Is there anyone out there who could tell me how long the  CAP and occupatonal training takes for reservists.  There seems to be alot of talk as far as CAP goes but not much on Artillery training.  I have hoever heard that BMQ is 5 weeks and CAP is 6 weeks for reservists. 

Thanks,

Chris.
 
The RAOTP (Res Arty Offr) crse was 41 days long in 1 x 11 day plus 3 x 10 day modules.  However a board just sat a couple of weeks ago to re-evaluate and update the courseware.  I understand the crse is now a total of 55 trg days, but have yet to see anything on paper.  Historically the course runs Jul-Aug in Shilo, but the increase in duration will probably have the crse commencing in Jun.  Hope this of some help.
 
Hello,

I have been researching extensively about joining the CF. In particular, I am considering applying as an ARTY officer at my local battery, 29th Field Battery within the 11th Field Regiment, RCA in Guelph. I am applying for Primary Reserve until I finish my degree and then will decide if I want to go full time or apply for Int Officer. I intend to visit the battery this Thursday and see what happens within the Reserves. I do however, want to find out from people that are either within the Reserves or Regular Forces what is it like as an ARTY officer?

Do you experience numerous tours, where have you been sent, where are you posted? Do you get transferred often? What sort of duties and tasks do you do while not deployed? Have you experienced any hearing loss as an officer? Is promotion rate within the ARTY faster or slower compared to other Combat Arms or other branches in general? (Below the rank of Captain)

I noticed in numerous posts a couple years ago there was a shortage of ARTY officers, however currently on the CF website, there is a high demand for Artillery Solider – Field, would this imply that there is now enough ARTY officers, or even too many and that the CF are now looking for NCMs to serve under these officers?

Thanks
 
Well, nobody else is biting, so I'll add my dinar. As with all calls for information, I hope you have used the search function on this site. That and the CF recruiting site should answer most of your questions.
The majority of the people I did training with starting with five years ago will have gone to Afghanistan two or three times by 2011, whether we're done at that point or not. Right now, Afghanistan is really the only show in town.
After training, you are posted to either Shilo, Petawawa, Valcartier or remain in Gagetown. The first posting, these days, lasts on average four-ish years, but could be less or more depending on the vagaries of your career.
No matter what your job is in the field, your main job in garrison is the administration and training of the troops.
If you choose not to use the ear protection issued to you, hearing loss is possible. But we're all big boys and girls here.
Everyone gets promoted to Captain at the same rate, AFAIK - DEOs get Lt upon completion of Ph IV and Capt after a year, MilCol/civvy U plan grads need one year as a 2Lt and two as an Lt after graduation.
The powers-that-be decide how many spots each trade gets per year. Arty officers have had quite a few of the cbt arms spots the last couple years. As with all trades, there are not enough soldiers to fill every position, whether NCM, NCO or officer.
Hope this helps. Int and Arty share some similarities, but your idea to check out the battery in Guelph is probably best to see if you want to get your hands dirty, figuratively and literally.
Cheers.
 
mitsulance said:
I noticed in numerous posts a couple years ago there was a shortage of ARTY officers, however currently on the CF website, there is a high demand for Artillery Solider – Field, would this imply that there is now enough ARTY officers, or even too many and that the CF are now looking for NCMs to serve under these officers?

Thanks
If it helps, I've also heard from many freinds, including OCdts that the Arty officers are also in serious demand.  Just because it isn't on the page as "red" doesn't mean they don't require people - just those trades are starving the most.

If they're going to recruit more Arty Soliders, you can bet they need more Officers to watch over them as well.

The combat arms have very, very high turnover rates relative to other trades, simply because of the nature of the work, and the operational tempo. Many people decide it's not their thing, and become something else, and the Arty is not an exception. So with vacancies come demand.

Best way to know for sure, talk to the folks at your Recruiting Centre, and have at 'er.
 
It would seem as if Regular army Arty officers are understrength. There's a ton of them on the BMOQ course starting Jan. 05. That doesn't necessarily mean that 29th Field is understrength.
 
Im just curious if you managed to get into the Regiment yet?

I was talking to 11 FD back in Sept about possibly joining them as an Arty Officer, I ended up going MARS instead.  But they told me they have 5 Arty Officers that still require MOC training and they could not get it because the unit was only being given 1 spot per year, so they said any new officers would be waiting a while to become trained.

Have you heard anything about this?
 
There are production capacity concerns in several occupations.  There's no point in enrolling young officers if they can't get trained; certain trades demand a large number of supprot personnel for their training.  Artillery is one - it takes a whole lot of folks to make the guns go boom on cue for the young officers undergoing training; if you're short of gunners and bombadiers, you'll have problems training enough artillery officers.
 
Indeed, that was one of the things that turned me off about it.  I did not want to be stuck as a 2Lt for 5 years.
 
ltmaverick25 said:
Indeed, that was one of the things that turned me off about it.  I did not want to be stuck as a 2Lt for 5 years.
Not sure what you're talking about, I've seen guys promoted to Capt. in less than a year. Half of my phase 4/DP 1.2 were promoted to Lt. at the grad parade.

For me life as an Arty officer; DP training does not prepare you for everything you will have to know how to do. Otherwise I love it :).
 
Furtry said:
Not sure what you're talking about, I've seen guys promoted to Capt. in less than a year. Half of my phase 4/DP 1.2 were promoted to Lt. at the grad parade.

For me life as an Arty officer; DP training does not prepare you for everything you will have to know how to do. Otherwise I love it :).

Assuming you can get loaded on a course, then yes you are absolutely correct.  The problem as it was explained to me by 11 FD, was that, they had over 5 new officers that required MOC training, however the unit was only being given one spot a year for candidates on the course, if that, meaning, you would have to wait 5 years just to get your qualification.  No qualification, no promotion.
 
I am joining as an artillery officer, and start BMOQ in September.  Is there anyone who can confirm the above information? Or is CAP just backed up because of the Afgan mission?
 
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